New wastewater treatment facility unveiled in Oxford

10/13/2015 11:37AM
● By Steven Hoffman

There were plenty of smiles at the Oct.
9 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new wastewater treatment plant as
the Oxford Area Sewer Authority reached yet another milestone in the
effort to meet the area’s infrastructure needs for decades to come.

The new mechanical wastewater treatment
plant, combined with an expanded wastewater storage lagoon and larger
spray fields, now gives the Oxford area a system that will be able to
handle up to 1,250,000 gallons per day—a 66 percent increase in
capacity.

“We have been very deliberate with
our design choices, securing of funding, and timing of these upgrades
to benefit the community and the environment,” said Ed Lennex, the
executive director of the Oxford Area Sewer Authority. “Seeing it
come to fruition is exciting, and we hope the community and
environmental leaders see the improvements as a success.”

Percy Reynolds, the chairman of the
Oxford Area Sewer Authority, recalled how board members interviewed
Lennex for the executive director position at a time when a
moratorium on new sewer connections was in place, stalling both
commercial and residential development in the region. The Oxford Area
Sewer Authority also needed to update its Act 537 Plan. Working with
Lancaster, Pa.-based engineering consultant RETTEW, Lennex guided the
sewer authority through the process of developing plan.

The Oxford Area Sewer Authority
received approval for the Act 537 Plan, which included an outline of
the proposed expansions to the wastewater system, in July of 2011.

In 2012, the sewer authority broke
ground on the first phase of the expansion, which was to create a
larger storage area for treated wastewater. The new storage lagoon
can hold 39.4 million gallons. This will help with the storage of
treated water through the winter months until it can be sprayed on
local agricultural fields. The sewer authority also added 63 acres of
spray area to its existing spray disposal, preserving and enhancing
the agricultural areas of the community by recharging the groundwater
table. These improvements and increased storage capacity will allow
the sewer authority to serve 3,278 users in East Nottingham, West
Nottingham, Lower Oxford Township, and Oxford Borough, as well as
future commercial industrial, or residential users in the Oxford
area.

The total costs for the various
projects amounts to about $32 million, which includes refinancing
existing debt, purchasing land for the new spray fields, engineering
costs, construction costs, and other related expenses.

The Oxford Area Sewer Authority, which
was originally formed by local elected officials in 1992 to acquire,
construct, improve, maintain, and operate sewage facilities in the
Oxford area, received a $5 million grant through Pennsylvania’s
H2OPA grant program. Most of the rest of the necessary funding,
approximately $27 million, was secured with a low-interest loan
through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities
Service Program.

Lennex said that the Oxford Area Sewer
Authority has an agreement to repay the loan, which was finally
closed in June, over the next 40 years. The required agreements are
in place with each of the member municipalities to back the loan in
the unlikely event that the sewer authority would be unable to pay
the debt service payments in a given year.

Thomas P. Williams, the Pennsylvania
State Director from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, explained
that the funding for the project comes through the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“It really does a lot for the
community,” Williams explained of the project. “It’s an
economic generator.”

Reynolds credited Lennex for guiding
the Oxford Area Sewer Authority through the entire decade-long
process.

“He has worked diligently to make
this happen,” Reynolds said.

Lennex said that the new system is
fully operational. The former lagoon still needs to be converted to a
storage area. The Oxford Area Sewer Authority is saving a
considerable amount of money by cleaning up the former lagoon on
their own, rather than paying for this work to be done.

“We’re estimating that it will take
about a year for that,” Lennex explained.

The current average daily usage for the
system is about 525,000 gallons per day. When everything is complete,
the system will have a capacity of about 1,250,000 gallons per day.

As a result of the upgrades, some
developers have already been able to break ground on residential and
commercial projects.

Lennex, who is involved in the Route 1
Corridor initiative that is aimed at promoting the Route 1 corridor
for future commercial or industrial development, said that the Oxford
area now has the capacity to accommodate future growth.

“We sit in a prime area for
commercial and industrial growth,” Lennex said. “The potential is
great and this is what was needed to be put in place to reach that
potential.”

Williams said that the community should
see numerous benefits from the project in the future.

“This project is not only important
for the Oxford area, but the region as a whole benefits because it is
helping to eliminate the flow of nutrients into our streams and,
ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay,” Williams said.